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Saturday, Mar 29, 2003

money for schools

useless scrip

"Pentagon war games pit "Red Force" (simulating the enemy) against "Blue Force" (the United States). In this war game, as in many war games over the years, Van Riper played the Red Force commander. In his e-mail (which was promptly leaked to the Army Times then picked up, though in much less detail, by the Guardian and the Washington Post), Van Riper complained about Millennium Challenge 02, writing that, "Instead of a free-play, two-sided game � it simply became a scripted exercise." The conduct of the game did not allow "for the concepts of rapid decisive operations, effects-based operations, or operational net assessment to be properly assessed. � It was in actuality an exercise that was almost entirely scripted to ensure a Blue 'win.'"

city slickers

"Welcome to the Urban Operations Journal. This site is designed as an online aid and web portal for members of United States, allied and coalition military services researching urban military operations. The intended audience also includes civilian members of the U.S. Department of Defense and defense contractors who are attempting to find solutions to the problems inherent to this most difficult operating environment."

down for the counter

initiating operation clutterfuck today. i will soon have more mismatched pointless furniture than i need. who needs a desk, a kitchen table or a stove when you can have three sofas and a free standing bar-height counter?

peer review

Brussel's famous statue Manneken Pis is dressed the colors of the city with a sign reading "Not In My Name."

hall to the chiefs

"After taking some political heat, Halliburton is stepping out of the kitchen. The giant energy and construction firm once managed by Vice President Dick Cheney is no longer in the running for a $600 million rebuilding contract in postwar Iraq, NEWSWEEK has learned.

Timothy Beans, The chief acquisition officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development, said in an interview that Halliburton is not one of the two finalists to be prime contractor for the reconstruction of Iraq, though the Houston-based firm could take part as a subcontractor. The contract is to be awarded next week."

integrated circuitousness

"Of the 30 members of the Defense Policy Board, the government-appointed group that advises the Pentagon, at least nine have ties to companies that have won more than $76 billion in defense contracts in 2001 and 2002. Four members are registered lobbyists, one of whom represents two of the three largest defense contractors.

The board�s chairman, Richard Perle, resigned yesterday, March 27, 2003, amid allegations of conflicts of interest for his representation of companies with business before the Defense Department, although he will remain a member of the board. Eight of Perle�s colleagues on the board have ties to companies with significant contracts from the Pentagon."

Friday, Mar 28, 2003

too legit to quip

damn that ethel and his research --

Instruments of Statecraft: us guerrilla warfare, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism (1940-1990)
eurobowling for petrodollars
Crude Vision: How Oil Interests Obscured US Government Focus On Chemical Weapons Use by Saddam Hussein

punkrock city, usaf

the antic muse on potential punkrock band names to emerge from the fray. my first editions would be Siege of Basra and The J-DAMs.

nothing to see here

hey, my first instapundit link. can a subscription to the weakly standard be far behind? cant argue with this, though.

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